Kyrgyz president to run in election

The president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, has announced his decision to stand for a third term in elections this autumn.

Mr Akayev's announcement -- made at a teachers' congress in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek -- had long been expected.

He joins seventeen other hopefuls who have declared their intention to run in the presidential vote in October.

Although the Kyrgyz Constitution limits the president to a maximum of two terms, the Constitutional Court ruled two years ago that Mr Akayev is eligible to run again.

It said his first term only legally started after the 1995 elections, although he had been in power since an unopposed vote in 1991. Correspondents say Mr Akayev -- like other Central Asian leaders -- appears reluctant to let go of the power several of them have enjoyed ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service